Five prisoners died on Friday afternoon during a clash within Bahir Dar City prison in Amahara Region of Ethiopia.
The clash occurred when six police officers entered prison cells to searching forbidden items and the prisoners attempted to abduct them, according to the report of Amhara Mass Media Agency.
The report indicated that the incident has led to the death of five prisoners and injury of many people including the police officers. During the search in the prison cells the police officers have found 20 mobile phones, many forbidden items including several knives, lighter, acid and narcotic drugs. In Ethiopia prison break attempts and such violence are not common practices.
Meanwhile in September 2016 fire outbreak at Qilinto Prison in Addis Ababa has led to the death of many prisoners as the police fire on some who reportedly tried to escape from fire and prison.
The cause of the fire, the number of causalities and the reasons for the gunshots remained unconfirmed, even though police stated that the death of 23 prisoners, including two killed by gunshot, was due to “attempting to escape prison”. The surviving prisoners were distributed to Zeway and Shoarobit federal prisons.